Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

March is a very special time in Bendigo in Central Victoria. It is very much known as the festival month. Starting with the Labour Day long weekend, two festivals that I was really proud to go to and support included Applefest in Harcourt, which celebrates the beginning of the apple harvest season. The very following day, I was at the Taradale Mineral Springs Festival, which is based at the site of the mineral springs. Both festivals are key to the Mount Alexander calendar and bring together the community. They are community based festivals. Quite often, they are not attended by a lot of community members because they are busy putting the festival on. Both festivals have 100 volunteers to help put them on and they welcome people from all over Central Victoria and Melbourne to the region.

Last weekend was the Harmony Festival in the mall in Bendigo, organised in partnership with the City of Greater Bendigo and the Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services. The festival celebrates the diversity of our region, the many groups that make up Bendigo, from our very early days in the goldfields with the Bendigo Chinese to more recent arrivals, the Karen community and the Afghan community, two groups that are making a huge contribution.

Also last weekend we celebrated Pride in Roseland Park, a beautiful gathering of Pride organisations from across the region and organisations that celebrate Pride. It was a wonderful family event with storytelling to dancing, lots of glitter, lots of colour, lots of rainbows, which my son Charlie absolutely adored. It brought together rainbows, glitter and bubbles, three of his favourite things.

Coming up, we have the Dahlia and Arts Festival celebrating its 50th year, which will begin with a walk through Eaglehawk to the park, where we celebrate everything that is Eaglehawk and beyond. In April we have the Maldon Easter Fair in its 146th year and Bendigo Easter festival, including the 150th Easter parade in Bendigo, one of the longest Easter parades we have in our country. COVID and then a severe rain event last year delayed the walking of the 150th parade for three years but this year it'll the first year that our Dai Gum Loong, our newest dragon, will walk on its own. It is a wonderful achievement to hit the 150th year of this parade. Again, it speaks to that long history we have in Greater Bendigo and in our region of celebrating our diversity. These festivals enrich our community. I'd like to thank all of our volunteers and the organising committees for what they do. I know many of them are taking a short break before they'll start planning next year's festivals.

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